The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) announced up to $7 million in new funding to improve energy-intensive manufacturing processes and strengthen America’s manufacturing sector. CESMII released two project calls to fund research and development (R&D) projects that align with the institute’s goal of accelerating smart manufacturing adoption through the integration of advanced sensors, data, and platforms and controls.

Manufacturing competitiveness is a top priority for the Trump Administration. In 2018, the White House identified advanced manufacturing, including smart manufacturing, as one of the vital industries of the future in its report entitled, “Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing.”

 “Smart manufacturing is bringing information technology to the floor of a manufacturing facility to leverage the technologies that are emerging from advanced sensors, cloud-based computing, advanced modeling and simulation, and artificial intelligence capabilities,” said Alex Fitzsimmons, DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency. “DOE’s investments in smart manufacturing allow the American manufacturing sector to become more productive, more energy-efficient, and more competitive on a global scale.”

The CESMII project calls will fund projects that improve the core capabilities of the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform. The funding opportunity also launches a new category of projects called “Innovation Projects” to create solutions for manufacturing challenges by implementing CESMII technologies.

Approximately $1 million of federal funding is available for new awards under the “RFP-2 Wave 3” project call and approximately $2.5 million of federal funding is available under the “RFP-2 Wave 4” project call. Industry partners must provide at least 50% of the total project funding.

Learn more about the application deadlines, areas of emphasis, and submission requirements.

Founded in 2016 in partnership with DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), CESMII is the third institute funded by EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office. CESMII accelerates smart manufacturing adoption through the integration of advanced sensors, data analytics, platforms and controls to improve productivity, precision, performance, and energy consumption in manufacturing.

CESMII is a part of Manufacturing USA^®, a network of federally funded institutes that have a specialized technology focus to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and promote a robust and sustainable national manufacturing R&D infrastructure.